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Start Skydiving Offer Wounded Veterans
Tandem Skydive Opportunity "Blue Skies for the Good Guys and Gals" Honors our Nation's Heroes Team Fastrax Professional Skydiving Team and Start Skydiving are proud to announce their new program, "Blue Skies for the Good Guys and Gals," to say THANK YOU to the men and women who serve our country. The program will provide a tandem parachute opportunity for those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard (active duty, reserve or guard) who have been wounded in combat and received a Purple Heart. Team Fastrax has partnered with the Wounded Warrior Foundation and The Thank You Foundation to reach out to Veterans around the country. "These are our nation's finest and brightest and we have an obligation to do whatever we can to lift their spirits and show them how much we care, said John Hart, founder of Team Fastrax and owner of Start Skydiving. "As a Gulf War veteran and 20 year Army service member, I am honored to sponsor an event that will have a special impact on these men and women." The program will kick off at Start Skydiving in Lebanon, Ohio on Memorial Day Weekend as part of the Thank You Foundation Boogie. Selection.com, the nation's premier background screening service, is spearheading the corporate charge to raise the funds to make these skydives happen. For more information on how to help and participate you can contact Start Skydiving at
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or call 513-934-3483. The Thank You Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to show appreciation and express gratitude for those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, both past and present. The Foundation accomplishes its mission though several programs and activities such as sending care packages, visiting Veterans in care facilities, providing complimentary tickets to sporting and entertainment events, and presenting Thank You Cards and Certificates of Appreciation to those who have served or are serving our military. Donations can also be made directly to: www.thethankyoufoundation.org |
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| Dear John,
At Start Skydiving, we place our customers first in everything we do. This newsletter is meant to keep you informed about the latest events and occurrences at our Professional Skydiving Center. Please take the time to email or call us with any comments that will improve the services we provide at Start. You can help us spread the word about Start Skydiving by forwarding our newsletter to your friends. All you have to do is select the "Forward to a Friend" button to the left. |
What's Up This Week | Week ending 15 March 2008 We are officially open for the season, so come on out and get current! We are now operating on spring hours: Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 am until sunset. SAFETY DAY IS THIS SATURDAY!!! Everyone who attends Safety Day will automatically be included in drawings for great prizes. Among the goodies available are: 10 lift tickets; products from Alti-2, Sky Systems, PD and UPT; gift certificates from TGI Fridays' and Chili's restaurants; and, of course, hip, fashionable Start Skydiving apparel. You don't want to miss this day! The Caravan will be flying this Saturday and Sunday. We have plenty of AFF and Tandem students on the books, so come on out and have some fun with your friends at Start. There will also be plenty of instructors available for those needing re-currency training or jumps. |
| | Safety First! | Things you need to know Safety Day at Start Skydiving is this Saturday March 15, beginning at 9:00 am. BRING YOUR RIG! We would like to have an idea of how many people will be coming, so please confirm your attendance as soon as possible by sending an email to
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. We will have the grills fueled up, so bring your burgers and brats and we will have a barbecue for lunch. Water training is tentatively set for the 29th of March at the YMCA in Lebanon, OH. The cost is $25.00 per person. Please send an us an email, at the same address as above, if you plan to attend. Don't forget your bathing suit and towel! Remember, students and A license holders, this is a B License requirement. Practice emergency procedures 1. Regular, periodic review, analysis, and practice of emergency procedures prepare you to act correctly in response to problems that arise while skydiving.
2. Annually review all parachute emergency procedures in a training harness.
3. Long lay-offs between jumps not only dull skills but heighten apprehensions.
4. Before each jump, review the procedures to avoid emergency situations and the procedures to respond to emergencies if they occur.
5. Practice your reserve emergency procedures on the ground at every reserve repack. a. Simulate some type of main malfunction on the ground, then cut away and pull the reserve.
b. This practice will provide you first-hand knowledge about the potential pull forces and direction of pull on you gear. |
| | DZ Happenings | | Here is the scoop! Mother Nature decided that the groundhog was correct and we were socked with another week of winter. Regardless, we were able to accomplish alot of good things during the course of the week. All four video editing stations have been upgraded, a weather station and new aircraft base radio were also installed. Something new for 2008 will be two internet Kiosks that will be located in the hanger, they will be operational the first week of April. We will be increasing the signal strength of our wireless router to cover all areas of our facility including the bunkhouse. We will be conducting an IAD certification course this year for anyone interested. After speaking with all the staff it looks like Start will have an IAD AFF progression program this year. We want to thank everyone for the great turn out on staff day, we ironed out a lot of good things for the student program. All of the changes will be in the updated student book and the FJC outline. Before you purchase anything visit our sponsors on the left side of this newsletter. We only promote and sell the best equipment manufactured and nothing else. Ask manifest if you are in need of something and Kip or John will sit down with you and explain the benefits of having the right equipment. |
Picture of the Week | 
Our rigger Greg doing what he does best, packing another save! Photo by David Strobel |
| National Skydiving League |  Four Way Tips John Hart, Team Fastrax Greetings All, Below is the sixth in a series of Four Way tips Team Fastrax is providing at the April Skills camp. Grip discipline & key plans
Part of walking the dive should be working out grip details. For instance, when taking star grips or open grips, in which jumpers take each other's arm, either or both teammates can take the grip. Determine who will do what. Failure to do so will result in fumbled grips, or "sword-fighting". Usually, the ideal grip choices in these situations will be:
· Single star grip on random (star): the jumper who is coming in takes the wrist of the jumper turning out or staying still. If both jumpers are turning in, pick one. · Double star grip on random (satellite): as each jumper turns, they present with the leading wrist and take the other's wrist with the trailing hand. · Open grip on random (open accordion): one jumper takes the other's wrist. Work out who takes whom, depending on who has to take other grips and who is keying.
· Single star grip on block (Canadian tee - Canadian tee): usually the same as a random. Sometimes a particular team will choose double high. · Double star grip on block (zircon-zircon): always take high grips. Most teams will take double grips, some will choose to take single grips. · Open grip on block (photon-photon): always take high grips. Work out who will go over and who will go under.
Work out the sequence in which each jumper will take each grip in each formation. That is not to say that one jumper must take a certain grip before another jumper takes a certain grip, but rather that if a jumper is taking two grips, work out which one to take first and stick to that plan.
Work out a key plan to ensure that each formation is completely built before it is keyed. To determine who keys a formation, figure out who can see and/or feel the entire formation. If nobody can see and/or feel everything, work out a plan where the person who can verify the other part does so, then makes eye contact with the person giving the key. For instance, when building a unipod, the inside center ensures the grips are built at the back of the formation, then looks up to the point to establish eye contact verifying the front grips are built.
It is essential that everybody follow the key plan. If people who are not planned to key start "stealing" the keys, busts will occur, and the points you work so hard to score will be squandered on penalties.
Meet 'n' Greet - April 12 Meet 1 - May 24 Meet 2 - Jun 21 Meet 3 - July 19 Meet 4 - Aug 16 NSL Playoffs - Sept 20 - 21 Rain dates are the Sundays. If good weather prevails and the meets complete in one day, we'll have organized big(ger) ways on the Sundays. If anyone has an interest in doing some 4-way this summer, feel free to contact me directly at
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. We're here to serve. Here's to a great season in 2008! -Mike |
Thank you for making Start Skydiving the place where great people become skydivers and skydivers become great! Blue Skies, The Team at Start Skydiving |
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